An ethic’s proposal is a long process...I was not fully prepared to be a student at a University again...it has taken many painstaking weeks to complete just a draft of my University ethic’s proposal and still it needs reworking...So I am taking a break to write a blog post.

Perhaps, quite fittingly, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice plays on the radio in the background. I am feeling a little muddled from the rain and the ascending music fits with how discombobulated I feel. I have spent the day attending a Māori language and culture class at the University, reworking my ethic’s proposal, and mulling over yesterday’s school visit.

Yesterday the school I visited with a fellow Fulbright Teacher, was very different then others I have seen thus far. This school is only for students who have attended a Māori-medium pre-school (a pre-school taught entirely in the Māori language) and parents must sign a contract agreeing to “walk next to” their students (resulting in a different level of parent involvement then other schools). The school felt a bit more like a US private school than others I’ve visited (although it is technically a government funded school). This school, like many schools here, felt like a home, like a community, like a big family...

One class of 6 year-olds had just returned from a trip to the zoo. When we walked in, all students were in different stages of undress, changing from their zoo-trip clothes into their school uniforms. There was much noise and controlled chaos in the room, with lots of unpacking and organizing happening at once. As I walked over to one group of girls, a student was digging in her backpack, tossing clothing items out of it. She holds up a pair of underwear saying, “these aren’t mine!” and promptly trys to hand them to me. I pause, and then, not knowing what else to do, take the pair of children’s underwear gingerly between two fingers. I walk around to other kids, asking if they own said pair of underpants. Unable to find the owner I hand them over to the teacher who, talking over all the students, asks the whole class who has lost their underwear; but he is also unsuccessful in finding the owner. With a shrug he places the lost underwear on his desk along with a lost black sock and a child’s romper...just another day in an elementary school....

In thinking about how to grow and apply this idea of building a strong cultural identity, a strong student voice, and cultural relevance in my classroom, the principal’s words echo and pile in my head:”First we must learn about and honor the culture of the land around us; the immediate surrounding area and the people of this land; the stories and culture of those people who have nowhere else to go; we owe the people and the land that; it is our duty as educators...then, to that story we can add others’ cultural stories...”I think I have some New Mexican regional research to do!